Prosecutors laid out a case that Bornold Alastair Eberhart killed Kristen Laymon at a North Myrtle Beach hotel in 2023, hid her body on a luggage cart, and drove back to Georgia before detectives pieced together the case months later.

CONWAY, S.C. — A Georgia man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty in the killing of Kristen Laymon, whose disappearance after a 2023 beach trip turned into a multistate murder investigation centered on hotel video, text messages and the recovery of her remains months later.

The plea closed a case that began with what authorities said was a late-night argument outside a North Myrtle Beach hotel and ended with prosecutors accusing Bornold Alastair Eberhart of carrying Laymon’s body out of the building on a luggage cart. The sentence came about a month before trial was set to begin, ending the courtroom fight but leaving many details about how Laymon died unresolved. Investigators and prosecutors said the evidence still showed a deliberate cover-up and a long effort to hide what happened.

According to investigators, Eberhart, 44, and Laymon, 53, traveled from the Atlanta area to North Myrtle Beach on Sept. 22, 2023, and checked into the Wyndham hotel for a two-night stay. Laymon rented the room and listed Eberhart as the only other occupant. After going out that night, the pair returned shortly before 2 a.m. on Sept. 23. Surveillance footage showed them arguing in their vehicle as they arrived. At one point, Laymon opened the passenger door while the car was still moving. She then got out, entered the hotel and took the elevator to the room. Prosecutors later said that was the last time she was seen alive. Roughly 10 minutes later, video showed Eberhart going to the room. Those images became a central part of the state’s timeline.

Investigators said the next crucial footage came the following day. On Sept. 24, hotel surveillance video showed Eberhart wearing a black hoodie and black gloves while using a luggage cart to move Laymon’s hidden body out of the hotel, authorities said. Prosecutors said he then lifted her body, wrapped in a sheet, into the trunk of his vehicle. Later testing found blood in the trunk, and DNA analysis linked that blood to Laymon, according to officials. Investigators also said Eberhart sent text messages from his phone during the period after Laymon was last seen alive and before he was recorded moving her body. In those messages, prosecutors said, he acted as if he did not know where she was and suggested he would need another ride back to Georgia if she did not return with the vehicle. Prosecutors argued those messages were meant to create a false trail before he left South Carolina.

The case stayed unsolved for months. North Myrtle Beach police were contacted on Nov. 8, 2023, by police in Georgia about a missing woman whose last known location was at the beach resort area. By then, Laymon had not been heard from since late September, according to investigators. Detectives in South Carolina worked with agencies in Georgia as they retraced the trip, reviewed hotel evidence and checked records tied to the pair. Officials said the investigation eventually led them to conclude that Laymon had been killed in the hotel room or shortly after returning there. They said Eberhart then drove back to DeKalb County, Georgia, with her body in the trunk and disposed of it there. Authorities later said Eberhart admitted killing Laymon and led investigators to the area where he left her remains. Her body was recovered on March 9, 2024, about six months after prosecutors say she was killed.

Even with the guilty plea, some facts remained unsettled in public records. The DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled Laymon’s cause and manner of death undetermined, a finding that can happen when remains are found long after a killing and there is not enough physical evidence to identify a precise medical cause. Prosecutors did not publicly tie the murder case to a single injury mechanism in the accounts released after the plea. Instead, the state’s case leaned heavily on circumstantial and forensic evidence: the hotel surveillance sequence, the blood found in the trunk, phone activity, the disappearance timeline and Eberhart’s later statements to investigators. That left one of the hardest questions in the case, exactly how Laymon died, without a detailed public answer even as the criminal case ended with a conviction and sentence.

The plea also underscored how the case crossed city and state lines before it was solved. Laymon was reported missing in Georgia, the killing was investigated in South Carolina and the remains were later found back in Georgia. North Myrtle Beach detectives coordinated with Georgia agencies while building the timeline, and prosecutors credited that joint work with breaking through what they described as an extensive attempt to conceal the crime. Assistant Solicitor Anthony DiChiara said after the case ended that Eberhart “went to great lengths to cover up the murder” but that investigators from North Myrtle Beach and Georgia “left no stone unturned.” Court officials said the guilty plea was entered in Horry County about one month before trial was scheduled to begin. A judge then imposed a 30-year prison sentence, closing the prosecution without a jury trial and avoiding what likely would have been a detailed airing of evidence in court.

Laymon’s death also drew attention because of the ordinary setting at the center of the case. Prosecutors said the pair had gone to the beach on vacation, checked into a hotel and returned after a night out, a routine timeline that turned suddenly violent. The images released later from the parking area and hotel property gave the case a stark visual record, showing the final known moments before Laymon disappeared and the later movement of her body. Public statements about Laymon after the case closed were brief but personal. Her obituary said she left behind a daughter and described her as someone who lived with laughter, kindness and tenacity. Those details offered a small picture of the woman behind the investigation, which for months had moved forward mostly through police updates, surveillance footage and court filings.

For South Carolina prosecutors, the case ended with a conviction, a prison term and a public statement that the investigation had reached its goal. For Laymon’s family, the resolution came after a disappearance, a monthslong search and the delayed recovery of her remains. Eberhart is now set to serve his sentence in state custody, and the criminal case that once pointed toward a trial is no longer moving toward another hearing.